RTRS: China copper confidence contrasts with aluminium woe
Capacity is dividing China's metals producers, with the country's top copper refiner looking for an upturn in a balanced market and the leading aluminium firm hoping things will not get worse.
Aluminium smelters, like China's steel mills, are suffering from huge overcapacity and now face prices below production costs, forcing many to shut in capacity.
"Oversupply and overcapacity in the aluminium industry in China will continue in 2009 and lower international prices of aluminium would open the door to more imports of the metal into China," Wen Xianjun, vice chairman of China Nonferrous Metals Industry Association, said at a conference in Shanghai.
